Ya I noticed the column effect....to me, its good to go..i have worked on this thing forever....One of these days, I want to make the 64 x 8 matrix...easy enough..just cascade more max7219s....just gotta get a large enough PCB

I have altered a version of a scroll program you did try that was hard coded for just 2x matrix displays so it will scroll on 4 displays but don't have hardware to test it on. Fancy giving it a try and letting me know if it works? I have attached it in case you do.

Just uploaded it.....no difference in this compared to the video I posted....

Hmm, if it's scrolling across all 4 matrix displays now instead of just the two it did before and it still looks the same as the version in your video then maybe the matrix is not wired quite right. Can you slow down the scroll speed using either sketch (mine you increase 'const long scrollDelay = 70;') and video it again.